¡Pa'lante Siempre Pa'lante!: Latina Leader Identity Development

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Intersectionality: Critical Perspectives on Building Tomorrow’s Leaders

Short Description

This paper examines how socially just leadership educators can integrate and validate the experiences and identities of Latina students into leadership studies coursework, arguing that a leader identity development approach will positively impact the retention and graduation rates of Latinas.

Detailed Abstract

Some of the best practices in leadership development and education stem from theories and models created by white men (Dugan and Komives, 2011).These best practices rarely focus on the intersectionality of multiple identities and how these intersections influence a student’s leader identity development. As students establish their leader identity it is possible that other aspects of their identities become less salient. Students are able to practice and learn their leadership skills in curricular environments. In bell hooks’ book, Teaching to Transgress, she emphasizes the value of classroom environments as providing an inclusive and holistic education. “Since the vast majority of students learn through conservative, traditional educational practices and concern themselves only with the presence of the professor; any radical pedagogy must insist that everyone’s presence is acknowledged (hooks, 1994, p. 8). Leadership educators have the potential to aid in the leader identity development of students by acknowledging their presence and their experiences.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss on how socially just leadership educators can integrate and validate students’ various identities into leader identity development. This paper will focus specifically on Latina college students, due to their increasing prevalence and marginalization in institutions of American higher education. “The numbers of Latinas alone – more than 26 million – make them a critically important group today, but projections are that by 2060 they will form nearly a third of the female population of the nation” (Gándara, 2015, p.7). This population is going to continue to grow and will have an even greater impact in institutions of higher education in the near future. This population is of particular importance due to low numbers in degree attainment. “Although Latinas are going to college in record numbers, they are significantly less likely to actually complete a degree, compared to all other major groups: in 2013, almost 19 percent of Latinas between 25 and 29 years of age had completed a degree, compared to 23 percent of African American women, 44 percent of white women, and 64 percent of Asian women.” (Gándara, 2015, p. 10). Socially just leadership educators have a critical role in the effort to help retain and understand Latina students through leadership classes. Socially just leadership educators must develop inclusive ways to empower Latinas to formulate their leader identity without negating their Latina identity in the process.

Participant

• Maritza Torres, Florida State University